Since not many people ever want to trigger volcanic eruptions (outside James Bond movies), I'm going kind of out on a limb here. It's true that pressure built up in the magma chambers causes volcano to erupt. For some volcanoes this pressure comes from rising hot magma pushing up until the chamber can't hold it anymore. Then it comes oozing out. See Hawaiian volcanoes.
These volcanoes are very boring. Pretty, but boring.
Gases and water vapor either in the lava itself or in the rocks of the volcano cause explosive eruptions. You can't do anything with adding gases/water to the boiling lava. It comes premixed by nature. You can pipe water into the sides of the volcano. The water will percolate through cracks in the volcano and when it touches the hot magma, it will turn into steam. Steam expands and will crack the rocks further, creating even more places for magma and incoming water to go. Eventually, you'll get an eruption. Not only that, you'll get pyroclastic flows (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyroclastic_flow), which most times are more dangerous that the flowing lava.
Other ways of triggering a volcano include triggering earthquakes underneath or near the volcano. This would cause underground shifting of magma reservoirs and can "prime the pump" so to speak when it comes to getting magma moving. You can make this step one in the evil process and pumping water into the volcano step two.
If you need any more scientific reasoning or justification on this topic, let me know. I'm always happy when I can put my geologic knowledge to ridiculous uses. XD
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2007-10-23 05:20 pm (UTC)Since not many people ever want to trigger volcanic eruptions (outside James Bond movies), I'm going kind of out on a limb here. It's true that pressure built up in the magma chambers causes volcano to erupt. For some volcanoes this pressure comes from rising hot magma pushing up until the chamber can't hold it anymore. Then it comes oozing out. See Hawaiian volcanoes.
These volcanoes are very boring. Pretty, but boring.
Gases and water vapor either in the lava itself or in the rocks of the volcano cause explosive eruptions. You can't do anything with adding gases/water to the boiling lava. It comes premixed by nature. You can pipe water into the sides of the volcano. The water will percolate through cracks in the volcano and when it touches the hot magma, it will turn into steam. Steam expands and will crack the rocks further, creating even more places for magma and incoming water to go. Eventually, you'll get an eruption. Not only that, you'll get pyroclastic flows (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyroclastic_flow), which most times are more dangerous that the flowing lava.
Other ways of triggering a volcano include triggering earthquakes underneath or near the volcano. This would cause underground shifting of magma reservoirs and can "prime the pump" so to speak when it comes to getting magma moving. You can make this step one in the evil process and pumping water into the volcano step two.
If you need any more scientific reasoning or justification on this topic, let me know. I'm always happy when I can put my geologic knowledge to ridiculous uses. XD